UK, Irish leaders seek to break Northern Ireland stalemate

February 12, 2018Updated: February 12, 2018 12:40pm

Photo: Niall Carson, AP

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Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May faces the media outside Stormont House in Belfast, following a bilateral meeting with Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar after they held crunch talks at Stormont with the region's political leaders in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Monday Feb. 12, 2018. Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government has been suspended since January 2017, but with renewed high lefel talks both sides said Monday that progress has been made.(Niall Carson/PA via AP) less

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May faces the media outside Stormont House in Belfast, following a bilateral meeting with Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar after they held crunch talks at Stormont with the ... more

Photo: Niall Carson, AP

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Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar speaks outside Stormont House in Belfast, following a bilateral meeting with Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Monday Feb. 12, 2018. Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government has been suspended since January 2017, but with renewed high lefel talks both sides said Monday that progress has been made.(Niall Carson/PA via AP) less

Sinn Fein's president Mary Lou McDonald, left, and Sinn Fein's vice president Michelle O'Neill, arrive to address the media at Stormont Parliament buildings in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Monday Feb. 12, 2018, as Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May and her Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar are holding crunch talks at Stormont House. Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government has been suspended since January 2017, but with renewed high level talks, both sides said Monday that progress has been made.(Niall Carson/PA via AP) less

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks with a worker during a visit to the Bombardier factory in Belfast Northern Ireland before meeting the main political parties at Stormont, for talks aimed at ending the political stalemate that has left Northern Ireland without a government for more than a year Monday Feb. 12, 2018. (Charles McQuillan/PA via AP) less

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks with a worker during a visit to the Bombardier factory in Belfast Northern Ireland before meeting the main political parties at Stormont, for talks aimed at ending ... more

Photo: Charles McQuillan, AP

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DUP's Arlene Foster speaks to the media at Stormont Parliament buildings in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Monday Feb. 12, 2018, as Prime Minister Theresa May and her Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar are holding crunch talks at Stormont House. Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government has been suspended since January 2017, but with renewed high lefel talks both sides said Monday that progress has been made.(Niall Carson/PA via AP) less

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks outside Stormont House in Belfast, following a bilateral meeting with Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar after they held crunch talks at Stormont with the region's political leaders in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Monday Feb. 12, 2018. Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government has been suspended since January 2017, but with renewed high lefel talks both sides said Monday that progress has been made.(Niall Carson/PA via AP) less

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks outside Stormont House in Belfast, following a bilateral meeting with Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar after they held crunch talks at Stormont with the region's ... more

Photo: Niall Carson, AP

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Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks outside Stormont House in Belfast, following a bilateral meeting with Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar after they held crunch talks at Stormont with the region's political leaders in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Monday Feb. 12, 2018. Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government has been suspended since January 2017, but with renewed high lefel talks both sides said Monday that progress has been made.(Niall Carson/PA via AP) less

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks outside Stormont House in Belfast, following a bilateral meeting with Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar after they held crunch talks at Stormont with the region's ... more

Photo: Niall Carson, AP

UK, Irish leaders seek to break Northern Ireland stalemate

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LONDON (AP) — The British and Irish prime ministers met political leaders in Belfast on Monday, as the two main parties in Northern Ireland edged closer to unlocking a political stalemate that has left the region of 1.8 million people without a government for more than a year.

British Prime Minister Theresa May and her Irish counterpart, Leo Varadkar, held talks with the main parties in Northern Ireland's collapsed power-sharing administration: the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party and the Irish nationalists of Sinn Fein.

"We're very hopeful that those two parties will be able to come to an agreement this week," Varadkar said.

May said she'd urged the politicians "to make one final push for the sake of the people of Northern Ireland."

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"There is the basis of an agreement, and it should be possible to see an executive up and running in Northern Ireland very soon," she said.

Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government has been suspended since January 2017, when it broke down amid a scandal over a botched green-energy project. The rift soon widened to broader cultural and political issues, with Sinn Fein demands for Irish-language protections seen as the main sticking point.

After a day in which Sinn Fein and the DUP met the visiting leaders, but not each other, both said that progress had been made.

"Good progress has been made and we will continue to work towards more progress," said DUP leader Arlene Foster.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said "we believe we are close to an agreement," adding: "We are not exactly there just yet."

"This is now a decisive phase of the process," she said. "This is the week for decision time."

The two parties have blamed each other for the impasse that threatens power-sharing, the key achievement of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord that ended decades of bloodshed.

Several U.K.-government-set deadlines to restore the Northern Ireland administration have passed without success, raising the specter that the British government might impose direct rule from London on Northern Ireland.